(poet's note: the poem was inspired by a visit to a punjabi shop in north london where the lad at the counter didn't know about anardana but my request brought his old mother out of the kitchen with a bag of pomegranate seeds AND some masala that she ...

Our blind nightwatchman
rises from a postprandial nap
at midnight
and starts on his rounds
through familiar lanes and alleyways
with their familiar smells
and resident pack of loud-
mouthed strays,
strikes the familiar lamp-posts
with his ...